The Ultimate Genius Quiz

There aren't many people on Earth who can be considered true geniuses. It's these people who see the universe for what it is -- and what it can be. They manage to use both hemispheres of their brains to innovate, create and spark insights that last for centuries. Geniuses are valued because they're the ones who push human progress in great and sudden bursts. Without geniuses, we'd likely still be living in caves. If you think you're a genius now, we bet you won't when you finish this quiz.

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Question 1 of 10

Which of these geniuses was the first to determine that electricity could be sent long distances with little energy loss using an alternating current and transformers?

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla, second fiddle to Thomas Edison in the public eye of history, created the method of electricity delivery power companies still use today.

Thomas Edison

Elisha Gray

Question 2 of 10

This genius writer wondered if madness might be "the loftiest intelligence," and if perhaps "all that is profound" might spring "from the disease of thought."

Edgar Allen Poe

It was the great and arguably mad, if not simply depressed, writer Edgar Allen Poe who wondered in print whether madness was a symptom of the highest intelligence.

Virginia Woolf

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Question 3 of 10

This amazing and religious genius believed that his insights into the functioning of the universe were merely recovered artifacts of "ancient wisdom" from pre-Christian civilizations that understood the principles of the universe.

Leonardo da Vinci

L. Ron Hubbard

Sir Isaac Newton

That would be 17th-century genius -- and the father of physics -- Sir Isaac Newton who held the fairly modest view his genius was simply a glimpse at previously-held knowledge.

Question 4 of 10

The water screw, still saving lives of people in rural areas without access to clean water, was invented by which ancient genius inventor?

Archimedes

Along with perhaps his most famous invention -- the death ray -- Archimedes invented the water screw, a device that culls and carries water from below ground to thirsty people topside.

Ts'ai Lun

Ibn al-Haitham

Question 5 of 10

The thought experiment of Quantum Suicide theoretically proves Hugh Everett III's Many-Worlds explanation of quantum mechanics. Which of these physics geniuses came up with the Quantum Suicide experiment?

Neils Bohr

Max Planck

Max Tegmark

Princeton physics theorist Max Tegmark came up with the Quantum Suicide thought experiment, which supports the Many-Worlds explanation of quantum physics.

Question 6 of 10

This physicist lost out to arguably the most well-known genius of all time, Albert Einstein, in the explanation of why the time-space continuum falls apart near the speed of light because he concluded it was due to changes in "the ether":

Werner Heisenberg

Pascual Jordan

Hendrik Lorentz

Hendrik Lorentz added the unproven -- and unnecessary -- concept of "ether" in the cosmos as the reason why things slow down the closer they get to the speed of light. Which is why you've heard of Einstein and not Lorentz.

Question 7 of 10

Which ancient Greek genius philosopher was made to execute himself by drinking a cup of poisonous hemlock as his sentence for publicly criticizing the ruling class?

Socrates

The philosopher Socrates was executed in 399 B.C. after refusing to comply with the ruling "Thirty Tyrants" following their revolt in Athens. With the rulers, some of whom were former students of his, and the people persecuted by people he'd educated, Socrates had little support and was convicted by a jury of 500.

Plato

Aristotle

Question 8 of 10

This genius predicted the existence of the hawk moth (or something like it) based solely on his observations of the structure of the Star of Bethlehem orchid:

John Muir

Elizabeth Britton

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution, grew orchids. He noted the design of the Star of Bethlehem and realized that, under evolution, the nectar store held deep in the flower should lead a nectar-drinking animal to develop appendages that could reach that nectar. Hence, the hawk moth.

Question 9 of 10

This ancient Kemetic (Egyptian) genius is considered "the first figure of a physician to stand out clearly in the mists of antiquity" -- 2,500 years before the "father of medicine," Hippocrates.

Imhotep

The priest, astronomer and physician Imhotep is considered the world's first true physician.

Khufu

Thoth

Question 10 of 10

Who is widely considered the first female genius on record?

Electra

Hypatia

Hypatia of Alexandria was a mathematician who lived around 400 B.C. She studied and taught quadratic equations, as well as philosophy. Sadly, she is often overlooked in the annals of history.